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No inquests until after royal commission

Karen Kissane

THERE will be no inquests on the deaths of Black Saturday victims until after police and royal commission inquiries have ended, and perhaps not even then.

State Coroner Jennifer Coate told The Age in a statement: "We have advised families that given the royal commission is under way and there are a number of criminal investigations under way too, it is not appropriate for us to proceed with yet another investigation at this time.

"Given the broad scope of the royal commission, it would be a waste of public money for us to be potentially doing the same investigation as the commission."

Questions about the circumstances of the deaths have arisen several times at the commission. Two-thirds of those lost died in houses. This challenges the current community bushfire strategy, which is based on the idea that sheltering in a house will often be a safe option.

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Lawyers for the State Government have questioned whether those who died in houses had defended or sheltered and whether the homes were bushfire ready.

A spokesman for the bushfires inquiry said: "It was never the intention to deal with this issue during the current block of hearings. However, the commission acknowledges the importance of resolving these outstanding matters and proposes to call relevant evidence of investigations concerning these deaths in later hearings.

"The commission will continue to work closely with the coroner in relation to these matters."

Last month, Detective Inspector Paul O'Halloran told the commission the remains of 113 people were found in houses. Mr O'Halloran heads Taskforce Phoenix, the Victoria Police investigation into the 173 deaths on February 7.

He said his team had taken 2000 statements and had another 2000 to go, and it was hoped further analysis would reveal precisely where on each premises people had died.

This week, CFA researcher Alan Rhodes told the commission a preliminary analysis showed that the 113 in houses died across 40 to 50 "instances" (locations).

He said that in up to 20 of those "instances" it was likely that people did not intend to stay, or if they did they had "virtually no capacity to protect themselves". They were people over 75, disabled, were visitors to the house, were children or were women with children.

The rest might have been trying to defend the property but Mr Rhodes said more information would be needed as to how prepared they were. Judge Coate said the coroner's office had received some material from the police and other sources but inquest briefs had not yet been completed.

"We anticipate it will still be some months before we get the bulk of them in," she said. "Consequently, it is too early to be making decisions about whether or not there will be any inquests and how they may proceed. These decisions will not be made until both the royal commission and the criminal prosecutions are completed."